End the unfairness of official bilingualism. Stop wasting our tax dollars.

23 November 2017

Omnibus Bill 177

Are the French activists so desperate that they have to exaggerate their achievements? Anyone reading the headline in the Ottawa Citizen article should immediately focus on these two words "claim victory". Reading the article, one realizes that this omnibus Bill 177 does NOT confer OB status on the City of Ottawa - it merely confirms that by-law 2001-170 exists and is being administered by the City as practically as possible.

Mayor Watson says that the City Council is still in control of what services will be available in both languages - the French activists cannot make unreasonable demands & force the city to comply, which would happen in the case of OB status. It is still incumbent on the citizens of Ottawa to make sure that, in voting for their councillors, they don't vote for any councillor who will cave to the demands of the French activists & pro-French academics. If you care about the amount of property tax you pay, keep a keen eye on what the city is spending your taxes on. According to statistics gathered by our researchers, the cost of compliance with the FLSA was $3,062,000 in 2017. With Official Bilingualism, it could conceivably be $20 or $30 million or more."

Matt revealed something that none of us knew is happening - an English speaker had to fight for evidence presented in court to be in the English language, in Ontario!! Unlike most of us, Matt wasn't willing to be intimidated & he did his own research & found out that he had the right to a hearing & review the whole challenge in English. Bravo, Matt!! This shows us that the Crown prosecutor didn't know the law OR that he thinks that English-speaking Canadians are pushovers!! In most cases we are!! Unlike the French, we don't have well-funded organizations which are given millions of tax-payer dollars to go to court to fight for their rights. People like Matt has to fight on his own.

Kim McConnell

We get letters from our readers who have to suffer in silence because the English-speaking majority has NO recourse against the unfair language laws, written into P.E. Trudeau's 1982 Constitution. Here is a recent letter:

Much is being said on CTV news about the upcoming vote to make Ottawa officially bilingual. DesRosiers, representing Vanier, promised during her election campaign that she would make Ottawa officially bilingual. We all know, with the make up of residents there, how easily many people of Vanier can be convinced to vote for the Liberal party because of underhanded promises.

Now there is a wolf in lamb's clothing! It all sounds so innocent & the whine of the danger of being disadvantaged in future is being accepted as a legitimate!

Like so many other instances of forcing French on people, she claims that it is only cementing what already exists. This is how they got legislation passed for bilingualism in the Federal Public Service. Then, as soon as it is passed, they begin to press for the full extent of the law so that as many francophones as possible take all the jobs available & start running everything. These francophone whiners play the role of sad, disadvantaged people just trying to get their due; then as soon as legislation is made law, they become bullies.

I was in the Federal Public Service for 12 years & several francophones tried to get me fired or limit my advancement because I did not pass their impossible French exams. The exams were created so that anglophones cannot pass; then francophones are given the jobs although they are NOT proficient in English & the language of work was English; & 95% of the public they serve is English-speaking. As soon as this gets passed, (they say next month), you will see the west end of Ottawa change significantly. The Francophones have their eyes on the west-end of Ottawa & covet what has been built up there by Anglophones, & now want to take it over. My thoughts are not too far-fetched and what I write would be easily recognized by any Anglophones in the Federal Public Service and/or who have lived in the province of Quebec like I did. I moved to Ontario because there were no chances for jobs in the province of Quebec for Anglophones, & the govt. treats Anglophones worse than recent immigrants.

Now DesRosiers appears on the news with her whining of worry over future mayors of Ottawa in order to get the legislation passed, thus bypassing Jim Watson who has managed to prevent it so far. Bastards! Many Francophones are as much the enemies of Anglophones as anyone outside the country! I have had to fight for jobs since I came to Ottawa in 1984 because of Francophones trying to take them from me. Making Ottawa officially bilingual would be a catastrophe for non-francophones in the whole of extended Ottawa without any doubt.

Is there anything specifically being done by CLF?

Evelyn

CLF's mandate is to shine the spot-light on this policy which has worked against the English-speaking majority. Most Canadians are uninformed on how unfair this policy is so our job is to tell anybody who will listen that something has to be done to stop this "tyranny of the minority".

No politician dares to speak up for fear of the powerful French lobby.

Kim

I worked for the Official Languages commissioner In the early 70s. That organization was full of separatists and I subsequently withdrew from there to the Treasury Board. In this article I believe it was McGuinty who referred to Canada as a bilingual country. The Canadian Legion says the same thing. Canada is NOT a bilingual country. Quebec is unilingual French and N.B. is the only bilingual Province probably because of the shouts and screams from the French factor The cost would be staggering. When I worked for Keith Spicer we would send his English annual report to Montreal for translation at 25 cents per word. When Paul Hellyer was Defence Minister he brought in integration. Saved 6 million dollars. All the savings went to translate motor vehicle maintenance manuals which no one used as the manuals were based on American technology. The whole thing is so damn stupid!! Wait a little longer and we might speak about translating manuals etc. Into Arabic.

M.M.

Hi Kim,

Thank you for the good work you continue to do.

I was at a session in Ottawa last week which talked about Career Paths. The goal of the session was to show the opportunities. The meeting was of the FI - Finance Community. Apparently, they have a hard time attracting and retaining in this professional group.

At the microphone, I asked about the impact about the new requirement that all managers and supervisors must now be CBC bilingual. The speaker indicated that this is only a recommendation and that they are looking at how to deal with it. It is a major issue, as there are many employees who don't meet those requirements. He indicated that those impacted would include him!

He also indicated that 8 out of 10 applicants are unilingual!!!! In the FI group, people often start to supervise at FI-02. Some FI-03's don't supervisor, but most do. So, it appears that as early as FI-02 you can hit the glass ceiling. I believe there is a lack of transparency when the federal government recruits at universities and does not inform applicants of this glass ceiling. Maybe that information needs to get out to managers of recruiting departments. If you go into a position and plan to stay there, it is a job. But most university graduates are looking for a career......

The unit I work in has fully implemented the requirement. They language test before looking at skills. They will wait ridiculous amounts of time to find an employee and spend outrageous amount to relocate. We did 3 relocations in the last 4 months. Two appear to be massive failures. But don't fear, they speak French. The reason they have implemented is due to "All the grievances they get"

I have been denied many opportunities due to language. I decided about a year ago to no longer act in the manager position, as why would I act in a position I cannot have? This has caused an issue in the organization. I am once again being asked to act. The union has never encountered this situation before. I am confident they can't make me act as I would simply get a doctor's note as the increased stress this would cause me.

A young FI told me that the Professional Group which contains Engineers (I apologize I did not get specific information) has sent an email to all their members to inform them about this requirement. They did so to ensure employees were aware, and could either decide their current job was a good one to remain at, seek new opportunities or get language training. I requested that my union do the same, but they don't want to do this. They did put a blog on their site which very few have seen.

Keep up the good work. It helps.

E.K.

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